Hearing loss from devices: what does it take for significant and
permanent damage?
Turning the volume up too high on devices such as iPods and
iPhones causes hearing problems such as temporary deafness or hearing loss. When having repetitive
damage to the ear at such a young age can result into causing permanent hearing
loss and this is now occurring quite frequently. Nerve cells carry signals from
the ear to the brain and the cells have a protective layer called the myelin
sheath, which assists the electrical signal to move faster. When these layers
are exposed to loud noises, such as 110 decibels (dB), the protective layer is
stripped. This in turn causes temporary deafness, and disruptions in the electrical
signals and therefore distorts the sound being presented to the brain. This temporary
deafness can be relieved once the nerve cells repair, but this can only happen
so many times before it is irreversible.
This is an important topic because young people are losing their hearing
at alarming rates due to excessive noise exposure from portable headphones. A
portable music system can produce sound in the range of 95-108 dB at half
volume and at 115dB at full volume. To put this into perspective, a gunshot
occurs at 100 dB, where as traffic occurs at a rate of 75dB. When hearing sounds that are 105 dB,
damage will occur after one hour of exposure per day.
From
2002 to 2010 Apple Inc. reported sales of more than 260 millions iPods. With
this many people using headphones to listen to music, there needs to be
information given out to the younger population regarding knowledge and safety
about headphone use and potential noise exposure. The best way to change this
issue, is to prevent having damage to the ears through education about noise
induced hearing loss.
Have you seen
any recent research on the noise induced hearing loss in the younger
population?
What do you
think can be done to stop this harmful, yet preventative hearing loss?
Would you say
the fault is on the manufacturers of these personal devices or from the users
of the products?
